Scotia
'''The Goddess of Masks:''' Scotia = Historians understand little about Scotia, Goddess of Masks, Deception, and Disguises, and her role as leader of the Daughters of Blue Jasper. Scotia first appeared nearly four millennia ago during the Renaissance of Italy. She was brought before the reigning Queen, Bianca Maria Medici, in chains and bound with a heavy sacks to hide the living appendages protruding from her scalp. A mob of angry merchants, disgusted at the very sight of her, dragged Scotia from the sewers below to be executed for the crime of vagrancy. She pleaded mercy and insisted she could be of use to the Queen. At first, Queen Bianca was skeptical, but allowed Scotia to be unbound and allowed to present her case. When the bag was lifted from Scotia’s head she wore the perfectly blended face and dark hair of the Queen herself. The court was mystified. Scotia and the Queen were summarily gathered for a private audience where Scotia detailed her plan to become a useful asset to the Italian Royalty. = '''Long Live The Queen''' = Bianca Medici made the mistake of greed. She had anticipated her new subject would teach her spymasters and their agents to mimic the appearances of another. Scotia refused to helped Bianca in her political maneuvering and instead offered to become the Queen’s doppelganger - someone meant to distract and ensure no harm would come to her majesty. Bianca was infuriated and ordered Scotia be interred in the dungeons below. The guards, however, had become unable to discern their true queen. Scotia stretched her hands toward Bianca’s face and within an instant she became the faceless crustacean she had once appeared. The guards obliged when Scotia ordered Bianca thrown from the castle window. With Bianca deposed, Scotia assumed the identity of the Crown and settled fast into her new seat of power. In the following decades she became one of the world’s most brilliant strategic minds and military commanders to ever live - though historians would not learn the truth for another two thousand years. = '''Two Can Keep A Secret''' = After the assumed death of the Queen Bianca Medici the Goddess of Masks disappeared and was not detected again until the reverted body of a German Prime Minister was discovered during the March of the Red Army - an identity she had stolen unbeknownst to the rest of the political outfit. She fled promptly to Liesrigen, where she became entrenched in the swooping plague the laid waste to hundreds of families. It was here that she finally developed a solid foundation and system of worship. All suffers of the plague had taken on leprous deformities and were unable to leave the country’s borders, due to the reluctance of neighboring countries and regions to accept refugees. Many groups simply thought the plague was contagious even after reports stopped. And so Scotia took them in, teaching them how to conceal their physical symptoms and appear ‘healthy’, but this gift came at a price. = '''Give Us Your Damned''' = In exchange for her aid Scotia claimed control over the region, which would later become the unofficial ‘Leper Kingdom’. Those who lived there would swear unequivocal allegiance to Scotia and act as her agents in protecting her from the wrath of the German Republic - who still seethed over her willing deception that had tricked a young soldier into shooting the real Prime Minister. Despite the means used to gain their fealty, the Leper Kingdom stood firm against the tides of German forces. They refuse to this day to allow harm to come to their Queen. Scotia softened greatly in light of their loyalty, and rewarded her followers with the ability to appear, semi-permanently, however they wished. Gradually the outcast, hated society grew into an established collection of metropolitan cities populated by humans able to shift - at will - into nearly any humanoid creature they desired. = = Many historians jokingly remark that Scotia possibly should have done this to begin with. = '''The Under God''' = Scotia takes the partial form of an older woman whose faceless head is covered in tentacle-like appendages. Her body, covered in ash-gray scales, is elongated an anatomically awkward - strange. She is usually portrayed as wearing an unflattering outfit made from living sea creatures. At the very sight and smell of her the normal human is completely repulsed and sickened. It is thought that Scotia’s insecurities about her unnatural appearance were the driving motivation behind her schemes for power and attempt to steal the lives of powerful, attractive military and political figures.